The Lake of the Wounded

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church on July 16, 2006

The Lake of the Wounded

Deep within the Smokey Mountains, the people say, west of the headwaters of the river, there is a lake called Ataga’hi. No hunter has ever seen this lake, for it is the place the animals go to heal themselves when they are wounded. Some men say they have been near that place. As they walked through the mists across what seemed to be a barren flat, they began to hear the wings of water birds and the sound of water falling. But they could not find Ataga’hi.

Some of those who have lived as friends of the animals have been granted a vision of the lake. After praying and fasting all through the night, they have seen the springs flowing down from the high cliffs of the mountains into the stream that feeds Ataga’hi. Then, just at dawn, they have caught a glimpse of wide purple waters and the birds and the animals bathing in those waters and growing well again. But as soon as they have seen it, that vision has faded away, for the animals keep the lake invisible to all hunters.

It is said that there are bear tracks everywhere around Ataga’hi, for the bear is a great healer. One of those who saw Ataga’hi in the old days said that she saw a wounded bear with a great spear wound in its side plunge into the purple water and come out whole and strong on the other shore.

It is hard today to see Ataga’hi, and some think that its sacred waters have dried. But it is still there, the Cherokee say, hidden deep in the mountains and guarded by the animals. If you treat all the animals with respect, live well and pray, it may be that some day you will see the purple waters of Ataga’hi too.

The beautiful story – the Lake of the Wounded – spoke to me as I looked for something to complement the opening passages from the letter to the Ephesians. Particularly “With all wisdom and insight he has made know to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the full-ness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” The key here is the universal nature of God’s plan. If God the Creator is the source of all that is, and continues to love and be present in all that is then it is not too great a leap to think that God will not give up on any part of creation that gets broken or for a time is rebelliously unloveable. In fact, Jesus’ parables often reflect God’s particular focus on those who are the most lost. God is certainly glad to have the well-behaved children around the table showing off good manners but it’s the ones that are not there, that have run off angrily shouting, “I won’t do it and you can’t make me!” that will become God’s prey. God’s patience with those who run from love is the winning strategy in the game of salvation.

This passage from Ephesians stands in a pretty lonely place in the Bible. As often happens in our scripture, cherished beliefs are given a counter-point. This image of all things – emphasis on the all – being gathered up into Christ stands in stark contrast to all of those passages about sheep and goats, some people being taken up while those left behind are – the Left Behinds. The letter to the Ephesians is the “yes, but…” to all of that. I believe that this is the scripture’s way of not allowing itself to be used as a weapon of exclusivity or to remind us that our understanding of God’s will is complete at best. Just when we think we can be sure of something because “the Bible says it” all you need to do is spend a little time in that book looking around and you will see your cherished expectations rattled just a bit.

In the Lake of the Wounded the purple healing water is available to all of the animals as they need it to be cured of their wounds. They do not need to be any particular animal, buffalo are not given precedence over gophers, and crows are as welcome as regal mountain lions. The story doesn’t tell us how animals know to seek out the healing of the lake. In their need, do they just know that there is a place of balm and ease for their suffering? The healing is offered because it is the Great Spirit’s nature to heal and because they are wounded. Here’s a question – would the animals come to the waters if they were not wounded? Liturgy and prayer and community are our ways of visiting such healing waters when we are not suffering from spear wounds. That makes our time together a joyous expression of wellness. Continually strengthened we are more able to make a holy response to wounds we see around us. Healing what divides us is salvation.

Considering and expectation salvation can be some of the most divisive thinking in all Christian theology. A lot of the way it is expressed in salvation passages is as if it were something to which you could buy a ticket – some event at a particular time that will be the end of every thing as we know it and the beginning of that time when only the good ones are left standing. There’s a whole lot of that kind of talk around right now. In some corners of Christendom currently there are people all in a hurry to convert as many Jews as possible because that will supposedly hasten the time we’ve all been awaiting. Well, I think it’s time for the renovation of this particular understanding of salvation.

What if “salvation” isn’t something that happens to everyone at the same time. What if it is more like the healing in the Lake of the Wounded – always happening when there is a need. Anyone who is wounded is welcomed into those purple waters and comes out on the other side whole and healthy. The whole idea of Jesus message via the gospels is this universal invitation to wholeness. My professor Clark Williamson said this in his book Guest in the House of Israel:

At the heart of the Jesus movement and the theology of Paul was a denunciation of every effort to place limits and conditions on the gracious love of God. That God justifies the ungodly, that this is true for all “others” if it is true for Christians, that it is not their place to instruct God as to the limits to be put on the divine grace, that God can and will do new things that none of us can either imagine or anticipate – all this is at the heart of Christianity’s apostolic witness.

It is not for us to decide that God has a timetable for drawing various parts of Creation into wholeness. It is as likely – in my mind – that “the fullness of time” may refer to that time when all of the presently unacceptable, the defiant ones shouting “I won’t do it and you can’t make me!” and all of those who, for whatever reason, might think that God doesn’t exist or doesn’t care, when all of their resistance has been overcome by the relentless love of God – then the time will be full.

Thought of in such a way – we all have a stake in everyone in the world understanding that God is love. Participating in God’s work by multiplying the amount of love that is in the world is the work of the people of God. It is unlikely that what is currently going on in the Middle East is a helpful step toward any kind of salvation. Bombs are not instruments of love and healing. The only way that this kind of relating is going to be transformed is if people who have already been dipped in the Lake of the Wounded step up and say there is a better way. We know that it is there. We have seen it.